Image credit: guruphoto CC license

Today is a very special day. I’m pleased and proud to introduce Richard Barrett, who will be writing every Tuesday from now on.

Richard is the creator of One-to-One: Business Relationships and has over 20 years experience in technology development, sales, and marketing. He served as President of Mobileforce Technologies, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for two start-up companies, Vinca and Nucleus, and co-founded Adaptive Data Systems, which pioneered the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) standard.
Richard holds an MEE and BSEE from Rice University and has published five books, many professional papers in technical journals, and numerous articles in trade magazines.

Richard brings a new dimension of business information to both stimulate your MAP and help your business thrive.

The first few years of this new century were only the warm-up! Business change continues to accelerate. If your business is not actively planning for major changes, then it may already be falling behind the curve!

Consider these changes already reshaping the global business landscape:

1.    Inflation is coming. China and India are driving raw materials prices. The weak dollar policy by Fed has contributed up to 7% in the increasing price of oil, which ripples throughout every consumer good in the economy. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 1.1% in June, which is the largest monthly increase since June, 1982 (Wall Street Journal). Annual inflation will almost certainly exceed 10% in 2009, and likely go higher in 2010.

2.    The price of gasoline is already shifting the workplace. Who can afford to commute, much less fly? With airlines reducing service across the board, how will you deal with remote workers and even more remote customers?

3.    GM Introduces New Line of Layoffs for 2008 – 30,000 this year, more coming next year. The US manufacturing sector will continue to shrink, with massive restructuring yet to unfold. Count on the federal government to use your tax dollars bail out GM and other automakers.

4.    Coming soon, the new US Workforce: Older and wiser and ready to retire. These workers have irreplaceable institutional knowledge, often unique and usually undocumented. How will your company retain these workers, find new workers and deal with the loss of critical knowledge as the older workers retire?

5.    Healthcare, the line item that ate Detroit. Is your business next on the menu?

6.    The new world – online communities. What is a wiki? What is UGC? How will these new online trends affect your business? What opportunities do they present for your business?

7.    Climate change – it’s real, but what does it mean for your business? Green is good. But, can you paste it on? Don’t be distracted by long-term global change. Identify immediate, local changes that may be opportunities for your business.

a.     Water will move. Drought, fire, floods will follow.

b.     Coastal insurance will skyrocket even as coastlines move and shrink.

c.     More erratic weather will increase production risks, disruptions, and costs.

d.     Food production areas will shift. Disruptions in food supplies will become common.

8.    Remember the mortgage crisis? It will continue to restructure the financial industry of the world through 2010. The credit crisis will consume weaker companies throughout the next year. After the US government nationalizes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, US taxpayers will pay the bill in higher interest rates and increased taxation. Brace for tighter credit and further pressure on the US housing market. How strong is your balance sheet? Clean-up will exceed $2 trillion, or 15% of the entire US GDP.

9.    The world is not flat. The economy is shifting, sliding far eastward toward Asia. How will you extend your business into Asia?

10. The world is not flat on the other side, either. Cash is sliding near eastward to Oil. Is your new banker (or owner) Middle Eastern?

11. US Presidential Election – Lawmakers will create confusion and uncertainty. OK, there is nothing new here.  The next President and Congress will have a full plate of problems. Regardless of any candidate’s agenda, the problems are already in place and restricting a President’s range of action. Congress and the President will likely continue to dally and kowtow to lobbyists, creating even more damaging incentives like the mandates and subsidies for ethanol. Don’t expect any help from your elected officials.

How mobile is your business? Can you move portions of your business to regions with lower taxation, better labor, and more flexibility for your business?

Your business will change in 2009. If you stand still, external forces will drive the changes. Take time now to understand how these changes will impact your business.

How will you reshape your business before these external forces do it for you?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 4:30 am and is filed under Business info, Compensation, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.